1. POWER and
CULTURE

2. “ideology” defined
 Ideology is a set of
assumption/beliefs/system that justifies
social stratification
 Examples for ideology:
patriarchy, matriarchy, white supremacy,
culture of poverty, heteronormativity

3. What is hegemony?
 Involves domination/coercion.
 Masses can give their consent (see Nazism)
or resist (see civil rights movement).
 Hegemony stabilizes when most members
give consent to the dominant ideology, said
Gramsci

4. illness and sexuality field of oppression
 According to Foucault, illness and
sexuality can become fields of
oppression:
By using the labels “abnormal” and
“immoral” that make people outcasts.

5. the Powerful secure their system
by constructing knowledge
 Spreading systems of thought through
education.
They determine what is “modern,” what is
awarded and what is punishable,
and label ability/disability, talent and
intelligence etc.

6. What kind of theory do we use for
analyzing how power operates?
 Critical Theory

7. Critical theory
 Critical theory provides
with frame of concepts
to analyze how power operates

8. Foucault: History of Madness in the
Classical Age(1961)
 Foucault questioned that the mad were merely sick
(“mentally” ill) and in need of medical treatment.
 He reasoned that the alleged scientific neutrality of
modern medical treatments of insanity are in fact
“covers” for controlling,
 and they oppress in the name of a conventional
bourgeois morality.
 The same is true for sexuality, and the concepts of
“man” (is it an object or subject?)

9. Foucault new idea about power
Foucault says, power has not only
negative but also positive impact
Power is also productive, helps
prevent chaos, and brings
discipline in social life